lifg posted:

Heres one. I cant remember exaclty how this worked, and I don't think I was ever told the full story, so some of the details may be wrong.

If you don't pay the mortgage on your house, it goes up for auction. Normally some of the mortgage is paid, so the balance of the mortgage is less than the house is worth. It'll get listed in some local paper along with the reason why.

So here's the con: Conman trawls the papers looking for these kinds of auctions. They go knocking on doors, looking for panicked homeowers, and offer this deal, "Sign the mortgage over to me and I'll pay off the amount owed, and at the same time we'll sign a one year rental agreement. At the end of the year you can buy the property back from me for just what I paid for it, the balance owed. You get to keep your house, and I get one year of rent."

Then, at the and of the year, when the rental contract is up, conman kicks the former owner out. Conman walks away with an entire house for less than what it's worth.